Duggar Family Issues Money Beg

Via Radar Online:

How low will they go? Thanks to their former lucrative TLC contracts, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are reportedly millionaires. However, now that the network has canceled the family’s reality show, 19 Kids And Counting, following disgraced son Josh’s sex abuse scandal, the shameless parents and their ultra-Christian brood are begging fans for financial support, RadarOnline can reveal. On the conservative clan’s official YouTube page, Duggar Studios, the family asks for supporters to contribute funds so the kids can create “fresh quality content” on their video site. “Every contribution is helpful, big or small,” they claim. However, the videos, featuring the children playing basketball and going to the dentist, don’t seem to require much of a budget. Also, clips are only uploaded to the account once every few months. The former reality stars have a history of money grubbing.

More from OK Magazine: "According to a report, the Duggars lost their $45,000-per-episode paychecks along with endorsement deals, sponsorships, speaking engagements and royalties, which could amount to a '$25 million or more a year' loss in total."

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"The Duggars want to return to TV because they truly believe it was part of God's plan for them to spread the word about their faith." - Via People Magazine.

The Duggar Family Has The Sadz

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Via Talking Points Memo:

Voters who cast their ballots for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the last election have a higher opinion of the scandal-plagued Duggar family than of President Barack Obama, according to a poll provided Tuesday to TPM. A survey conducted by the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling found that 67 percent of respondents who voted for Romney in 2012 said they had a higher opinion of the family made famous by TLC's "19 Kids and Counting." Just 12 percent of Romney voters said they had a higher opinion of the President than the Duggars. By contrast, 87 percent of respondents who voted for Obama in 2012 said they had a higher opinion of the President than the Duggars.

(Tipped by JMG reader Arthur)

REPORT: Roy Moore And Mike Huckabee's Co-Author Was Sued For Child Molestation

Buzzfeed reports that John Perry, the co-author of books by Roy Moore and Mike Huckabee, was accused of molesting a young girl in two separate lawsuits.

“The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14,” said Nashville police department spokesperson Don Aaron in a statement to BuzzFeed News. “As a result of the investigation, the allegations of sexual battery were sustained, but it was determined that the statute of limitations had tolled, barring prosecution. The victim was age 18 when she first disclosed the allegations to non-law enforcement and said at that time she did not want the matter reported to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services or the police.” In a second series of lawsuits brought in a county court in Tennessee, and related to the same alleged acts of child molestation, Austin Davis, a former parishioner of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, claims that the church covered up Perry’s alleged acts of child molestation and launched a campaign to silence and harass Davis.

Huckabee's spokesman has not responded to a request for comments.

State Workers Call 911 After Duggar Family Objects To New Investigation

In Touch did promise us new revelations:

The Duggar family is under investigation again by the Arkansas Department of Human Services and police were called when the family refused to cooperate, In Touch magazine is reporting exclusively in its new issue that hits newsstands today. A representative from the Washington County DHS called 911 on May 27 at around 11 a.m. asking for police assistance when DHS was not allowed to see the minor they were concerned about. In Touch, which broke the story of Josh Duggar’s sexual molestation scandal, has the full transcript of the emergency call in the new issue. The new investigation comes as the family tries to save its TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, which the network pulled off the air, while determining its fate. Jim Bob, Michelle and two of their daughters sat for interviews with Fox News, attempting to minimize the damage, but much of what they said was widely condemned as misinformation and not full disclosure.

In Touch notes that the latest investigation could have been triggered by a complaint to a state hotline, including an anonymous one. (Tipped by JMG reader Sharon)

REPORT: Lesbian Couple Helped Break The Duggar Family Molestation Scandal

Early this year the Duggar family invited couples to post kissing photos on their Facebook page, which naturally spurred many submissions by gay couples. After the Duggars deleted all of the gay photos, Texas couple Tandra Barnfield and Samantha Muzny went viral with a photo they took right in front of the Duggar home in Arkansas. The pair returned to the Duggar homestead in March to pose for a second photo, this time triumphantly holding their Oklahoma marriage license.

Today the Chicago Tribune reports that it was Tandra Barnfield who first tipped off In Touch about the existence of the police report which detailed Josh Duggar's molestations.

"This all comes from good, basic journalism," said David Perel, editorial director of InTouch and its sister gossip-purveyors, Life & Style and Closer. "It comes from being there. It's knowing where to attack and where to start digging." The Duggar story came together quickly over a three-week period, said Perel, a veteran tabloid editor who joined the publication in late 2013 after guiding both the National Enquirer and Radar Online. He won't name the magazine's sources, but a woman named Tandra Barnfield apparently was a helpful guide.

Barnfield was contacted by an In Touch reporter, Melissa Roberto, earlier this year after Barnfield posted a photo on Instagram of her kissing her wife, Samantha Muzny, in front of the Duggars' home near Springdale, Arkansas. The photo — a protest, Barnfield said, of Michelle Duggar's role in promoting opposition to an anti-discrimination initiative last year — had gone viral.

During their conversation, Barnfield, who lives in the Houston area but has family in Springdale, told Roberto about the police report. "It wasn't like it was a rumor to us," Barnfield said in an interview. "We knew all about it. . . . It wasn't hard to get it. You just had to know where to look." In fact, it was a little more complicated than that. Perel quickly dispatched two reporters to Springdale and hired a local law firm to advise the magazine about Arkansas' open-records law, which enables residents (but not reporters from New Jersey) to obtain public documents. The law firm filed the records request — and was rewarded with a copy of the original police report several days later. "We got it fast," Perel said.

Perel added that In Touch has more revelations to come.

Duggar Sisters Speak Out On Fox: Josh Was Just A Little Too Curious About Girls

Via CNN:

What happened to Josh Duggar's victims was "very mild" compared to what other victims of sexual molestation have experienced, two sisters of the reality TV star told Fox News in an interview that aired Friday night. Jessa Duggar Seewald and Jill Duggar Dillard said their brother began inappropriately touching them before they were teenagers. Dillard said she was 12 and Seewald was "9 or 10," she said. In the interview, which was recorded Wednesday, the sisters spoke in defense of their brother, who is now 27. He's not a rapist or pedophile, Seewald said. "I was one of the victims so I can speak out," she told Fox. "In Josh's case, he was a boy, young boy in puberty, and a little too curious about girls and that got him into some trouble," she said. "And he made some bad choices, but really the extent of it was mild inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims. Most of it while girls were sleeping."

REPORTS: Jim Bob And Michelle Duggar Lied During Fox News Interview

Yesterday afternoon In Touch published a seven-point refutation of claims made by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar during their Fox News interview. An excerpt:

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar broke their silence about son Josh’s sexual molestation scandal on Wednesday night, but their interview was filled with misinformation and the reality TV couple also withheld crucial facts, according to public documents, obtained by In Touch magazine through the Freedom of Information Act. One of the most glaring omissions by the family concerns their statements about the 2006 Springdale Police Department investigation. The Duggars gave the viewing audience the impression that they fully cooperated, saying, “We trusted them, we trusted the police department.” But the Springdale police report, obtained by In Touch through FOIA, reveals that Jim Bob refused to produce Josh for a police-requested interview and stopped cooperating with the probe. “On Tuesday, December 19, 2006 at approximately 1300 hours D. Hignite received a voice mail from Jim Bob Duggar in reference to the interview with [redacted, Josh]. Det. Hignite received a voice mail from Mr. Duggar stating that [redacted, Josh] had hired an attorney and will not be coming in for interview.”

Hit the link for the rest. More from TMZ:

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are full of it when they say the Springdale, Arkansas Police Chief had an agenda in releasing the "sealed" molestation case ... so says the city's top prosecutor. Springdale City Attorney Ernest Cate tells TMZ, the case file was never sealed. The reason -- the police report wasn't filed until 2006, 4 years after the molestations began. When the police report was filed, Josh Duggar was 18, an adult suspect, and therefore there was no basis for sealing the case. Cate says he got a Freedom of Information request from a media outlet, and since it was a non-sealed case he was required to release it under the Freedom of Information Act. The names of the minor victims in the police report narrative were redacted. Jim Bob and Michelle claimed on Fox News Channel they were the real victims, because the Police Chief somehow had an agenda to get them. But Cate says it's just not true, the city followed the law in releasing the file.

Huckabee Scrubs Duggar Endorsement

Via Talking Points Memo:

Endorsements from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," have disappeared from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's (R) presidential campaign website. The Duggar endorsements enjoyed top billing on the campaign site's "I Like Mike" sidebar on May 22, the day Huckabee issued a full-throated defense of the family following the publication of a 2006 police report that showed the Duggar's eldest son, Josh, was investigated for molesting five underage girls when he was a teenager. Parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said that four of the victims were Josh's sisters, while the fifth was a babysitter, during an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly that aired Wednesday night.

Two weeks ago: "Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family."

Sarah Palin Defends The Duggars: Media Is "Spitting On The Graves" Of Those Who Died For Freedom Of Speech

"The shocking, unethical leak of a private, legally protected counseling document by a politically motivated law enforcement official. Media - time to go after her or him for illegalities and for destroying the public's trust in law enforcement. The media's hell-bent mission to go after the entire Duggar family for one member’s wrongdoing, while giving a total pass to perverted actions of someone like Lena Dunham - or any other leftwinger celeb caught doing awful things. Remember reports of the pedophile billionaire our former democrat president has been friends with and hung out with on the pedophiles 'orgy island' full of underage girls? Such obvious double standards applied to equally relevant stories underestimates the wisdom of the public, discredit the press, and spits on the graves of every American who fought and died for the press's freedom. I hate for anyone to go through this game liberals are allowed to play, relentlessly attacking on an uneven playing field until a conservative's career, relationships, and reputation are destroyed." - Sarah Palin, posting this afternoon on her Facebook page.

Duggars On Fox News: Josh Is Not A Pedophile And Keeping Trans People Out Of Restrooms Is Just Common Sense

Via the Washington Post:

At one point, Kelly asked Michelle Duggar about a robocall she made that,Kelly said,”suggested transgender people might want to go into the bathrooms of girls, locker rooms of girls, and that they may be child molesters.” “I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense,” Duggar said. “But this is different, because you injected child molestation into it,” Kelly said.  At that point, Jim Bob Duggar jumped in to say his wife “actually said pedophile in that [robocall]. And actually a pedophile is an adult that preys on children. Joshua was actually 14 and just turned 15 when he did what he did. I think the legal definition is 16 and up for an adult preying on a child. He was a child preying on a child.” Kelly asked whether the Duggars could understand the reactions of critics to the news. “I can understand that,” Michelle Duggar said. “But I know every one of us has done things wrong. This is more about, there’s an agenda. And there’s people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander.”

Megyn Kelly: My Interview With The Duggars Won't Be A Cross-Examination

More from Mediaite:

The Fox host was particularly outraged by the way some in the media have highlighted connections between the Duggars and Republican presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. “Bill Clinton was accused of rape. He has been accused by several women of sexually assaulting them,” Kelly stated. But the fact that a presidential candidate has posed with some random member of the family that’s going through this issue is somehow a problem for the GOP’ers?” For the record, several candidates have posed with Josh Duggar and not just random members of his family. “I’ve been pretty disgusted by how some liberal media types are using what’s obviously a family tragedy to score political points,” Howard Kurtz agreed, but also admitted that “sometimes people on the right feast on, when a liberal icon falls into trouble.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Mike)

Duggars To Be Interviewed By Fox News

Via Entertainment Tonight:

The Duggars are finally speaking on camera. More than a week after they responded on Facebook to the under-age molestation allegations against their oldest son Josh Duggar when he was 14 years old, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar announced that they are giving their first sit-down TV interview to Fox News. News anchor Megyn Kelly landed the highly sought-after interview with the 19 Kids and Counting parents, which she'll conduct on Wednesday, June 3, from the family's Arkansas hometown. "Next week we will sit down with Megyn Kelly on Fox News to share our hearts with you about the pain that we walked through as a family twelve years ago, the tears we all shed and the forgiveness that was given," the Duggars wrote in a statement. "We appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers for our family at this time."

TLC has still not yet formally cancelled the show.

Funny Or Die Vs The Duggar Family

Family Duggar Research Duggar Council: What To Do If SCOTUS Rules Against Us

Next month the Family Duggar Research Duggar Council Duggar Duggar will hold a symposium Duggar on the "appropriate response" Duggar if the Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage. That should be fun! Duggar! Notice that three-times divorced "Dr." Alveda King is one of the panel experts. PS: Josh Duggar.

Hulu Yanks Duggar Family Show

RELATED: At least a dozen major companies have pulled their advertising from TLC, but the network has not yet formally announced a cancellation.

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Seriously? Details.

Larry Wilmore On The Duggar Scandal

(Tipped by JMG reader Mike)

Fox News Ignores Duggar Scandal

Read more at Media Matters.